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Boeing Sales To China Set To Soar

caption: Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife step out of a Boeing 747 at Everett's Paine Field. China made a splash with its announcement in September that China would buy Boeing planes for its growing air passenger market.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife step out of a Boeing 747 at Everett's Paine Field. China made a splash with its announcement in September that China would buy Boeing planes for its growing air passenger market.
KUOW Photo/Carolyn Adolph

China's largest airline says it will buy 80 Boeing 737 jets made in Renton.

But many won't be ready for passengers when they take off.

TRANSCRIPT

The 737s may still be wearing their green skins when they fly across the sea. The plan is for a new Boeing factory in China to finish them -- paint, seats and interiors.

The company made that promise in September just as China announced plans to buy hundreds of Boeing planes.

China is getting special attention from Boeing because of the scale of the opportunity and because of the competition with Airbus.

The International Air Transport Association says China will overtake the United States as the world's biggest air passenger market by 2029.

Which means China will buy not just hundreds but thousands of planes.

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